On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers[18], Monika Hardy, Chris Sloan and Paul Allison invited Amy Lewark, Mary Ann Reilly, Adam Mackie, and Jodhbir Singh, who has been visiting visiting the Lab[19] that Monika Hardy[20] facilitates. He has a passion to help change education in India where he is from. Monika writes, "We've been corresponding for some time now. This is our first face to face. He's incredible and will have some good insight of what we're doing and how it looks in person."

Mainly, we learned from a group of educators who teach the classics using gaming. We hope you'll enjoy learning more from the Pericles Group[21].

From their web site:

Kevin Ballestrini teaches Latin and Mythology at the Norwich Free Academy[22] in Connecticut. He has received an M.A. and B.A. in Classics from the University of Colorado[23] and University of Connecticut[24] respectively. In addition to experience teaching in a traditional classroom setting, in the 2010-2011 academic year Kevin deployed the first fully practomimetic introductory language course at the high school level in a section of Latin I. The experience has clearly enhanced student engagement and connection to life and culture in ancient Rome. For 2011-12, he will be expanding the offering of practomimetic courses to the second year of introductory Latin in addition to the first. As an avid technology enthusiast, he maintains his blog, Techna Virumque Cano (http://kevinbal.blogspot.com[25]) where he discusses the intersection of technology and his teaching. He is also a regular contributor to the collaborative blog Play the Past (http://[26]playthepast[26].org[26]). Kevin is the leader of a large kinship in The Lord of the Rings Online and active in many gaming communities.

Roger Travis is an Associate Professor of Classics in the Department of Literatures, Cultures & Languages of the University of Connecticut. He is also the Director of the Video Games and Human Values Initiative (http://vghvi.org[27]) at UConn, an interdisciplinary online nexus for online courses and scholarly activities like fellowships, symposia, and the initiative’s Proceedings, of which he is the editor. He received his Bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard College, and his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley before arriving at UConn in 1997. He has published on Homeric epic, Greek tragedy, Greek historiography, the 19th C. British novel, HALO, and the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game He has been President of the Classical Association of New England and of the Classical Association of Connecticut. He writes the blog Living Epic (http://livingepic.org[28]) about his discovery of the fundamental connection between ancient epic and the narrative video game, and is a founder and contributor of the collaborative blog Play the Past(http://[26]playthepast[26].org[26]). In the 2009-2010 academic year, Roger offered the first courses ever designed entirely as practomimes (seehttp://www.academicimpressions.com/news.php?i=59[29] for detail).

Stephen Slota is a Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut and holds a full-time assistantship with the UConn Two Summers Program under his advisor, Dr. Michael Young. Stephen received both his Bachelor of Science in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Connecticut, followed by two years teaching life science at a Title IX Connecticut high school. He has previously served as a professional development specialist in educational technology and now works with Dr. Roger Travis of the UConn Department of Modern and Classical Languages on the effects of game-based learning in high school and college Latin courses. Stephen’s research interests include: gaming and its effects on student engagement and achievement, situated effects of gaming on secondary learners, prosocial learning through massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), the influence of imagination and dreams on situational perception, and pedagogical means of improving student self-efficacy.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Welcome to the 'teachersteachingteachers' room.
paulallison: Come learn with us on Teachers Teaching Teachers - Meet Jodhbir Singh and the Pericles Group - Wed. Sept. 7, 9 PM East / 6 PM Pacific.
Kevin Ballestrini: Testing
Roger: test
Steve: test
monika: say
Jodhbir: Jodbeer
monika: joe and beer with a d in the middle
monika: can you hear me
pgeorge: Hi everyone
Jodhbir: I can't hear you Monika
Jodhbir: yes
pgeorge: now that the ad is finished I can hear great :-)
pgeorge: does Monika have power/light tonight?
Jodhbir: Yes,.. probbaly she forgot to turn on
pgeorge: watching the Jack Daniels ad... :-)
pgeorge: are there two different chats--one in hangout and one in ETT/Livestream?
Steve: yes
Steve: the G+ one appears to be better synced though
pgeorge: I can't see Google plus because I'm not in the call
monika: no power in my roo
monika: m
monika: Jodhbir has it
Steve: fair enough :)
Amy Lewark: I kinda missed Jodhbir's intro with that server reboot. :)
pgeorge: no problem Monika-- can hear you great!
monika: thank you Peggy
adammackie: I'm trying to join, Adam Mackie here. I'm sorry I'm late...I don't want to interrupt. I can just listen this time...
monika: just go to google + Adam
monika: and join Paul's hangout.. but close livestream
pgeorge: I love being able to see everyone but it definitely requires more bandwidth--very slow typing upload
Amy Lewark: I had to close all my browser tabs for it to work well... my computer was overheating.
Amy Lewark: Adam, you need to close the EdTechTalk window to get rid of the echo.
monika: or grab earbuds or both
Stephen: good rant
pgeorge: I know Pokemon :-)
pgeorge: this sounds like so much fun!
Stephen: I think the singing adds a nice flavour to the audio
pgeorge: authentic learning for us!
pgeorge: clever!! 3 letter word that starts with f :-)
pgeorge: hold the card up again :-)
Jodhbir: Monika, do you have light switch in your room?
Jodhbir: Your image is dark
monika: no electricity up here Jodhbir
Jodhbir: :(
monika: your's is a line from downstairs
pgeorge: thank you!!
pgeorge: those are similar to the trading cards you can create on bighuge labs :-)
Kevin Ballestrini: www.thegamecrafte.com[30] is the link, btw
pgeorge: thank you!
Kevin Ballestrini: ooops, www.thegamecrafter.co[31]
pgeorge: :-)
Kevin Ballestrini: .com
Kevin Ballestrini: typing lag :)
pgeorge: 3rd times a charm!! got it :-)
Roger: practomime.com
pgeorge: thanks Roger
Chris Sloan: My son's reading the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian right now in his English class
Chris Sloan: good book
pgeorge: love that term! continuous embedded formative assessment :-)
Chris Sloan: are the rubrics online somewhere?
Steve: we have created rubrics for the prompt responses in order to provide some guidance for assessing them
Kevin Ballestrini: Chris, feel free to email me or tag me on G+
Kevin Ballestrini: I'd be happy t share it with you
pgeorge: tooo funny!
Amy Lewark: I had to mute because my husband is on a skype meeting in this same room. Thanks for including me.
Amy Lewark: Sorry I can't speak, but I find my kids learn better when they are answering questions that they themselves generate. But, I do think that they would like such an approach, if they chose to take a
Amy Lewark: course on the classics. That being said, my son has chosen on his own, just through what I leave around the house, to study Greek and Norse myths, and the Children's Homer.
pgeorge: @Amy-great way to get him hooked :-)
Amy Lewark: He hooked himself. I just make it available.
pgeorge: that was an important piece to it though!!
Amy Lewark: Yes, and that can happen long before college. I don't see the point of requiring these courses.
Amy Lewark: The difference in my "hook" is patience. I can bring the information around, and the kids can take more than a semester to develop interest.
Amy Lewark: So when there is interest, it is genuine.
Amy Lewark: Learning is everywhere. I was just thinking that we could help people notice.
pgeorge: this has been fasicnating! thanks to all of you very inspired, creative teachers!!
Steve: thank you for your interest :D
pgeorge: how about a flashlight???
Amy Lewark: Maybe I'll bring her a spooky flashlight. ;)
pgeorge: :-)
Amy Lewark: If she promises to put a QR code on it.
pgeorge: is there a specific circle for this on google plus?
pgeorge: poof! you're all gone!
pgeorge: thanks everyone!